Tokyo saw its biggest increase in coronavirus cases in two months, confirming 107 new cases on Thursday.
Of the new cases, 70% are said to be among younger people in their 20s and 30s.
“It’s really unpleasant that it is increasing somewhat,” said Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. “I’d like to ask all Tokyo residents and everyone at businesses for their cooperation to prevent that.”
Tokyo, the world’s largest city and home to 14 million people, is not seeking to reintroduce another state emergency despite the recent spike, according to Reuters. Japan’s capital previously introduced a state of emergency in an attempt to contain new daily cases to fewer than 20. After the declaration was lifted on May 25, the city saw cases rise to 50 per day the subsequent week.
“We’ll continue to pay attention to the infection situation in the area with a sense of urgency, and work to both prevent spreading of infection and support economic activity,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Tokyo also announced this week that it will pursue reliance on expert advice to try and control the virus and move away from numerical targets.
Japan as a whole still has a far lower infection rate than many other countries with 19,000 cases and 976 deaths.
